Witches of Dathomir
The Witches of Dathomir (also referred to as either Dathomirians or Dathomiri) were a group of Human Force-sensitives native to the planet Dathomir. They were also known as the Daughters of Allya in honor of the wayward Jedi Knight Allya, who was banished to the planet around 600 BBY, and who they regarded as their ancestress. By the time of the Galactic Empire, Allya's descendants had divided into female-dominated clans that were named after regional landmarks. Each clan had a unique set of rules regarding Force usage, but all the clans held one rule above all others: "Never concede to evil". Origins Around 600 BBY, a Jedi Knight named Allya arrived on the wilderness planet Dathomir, apparently a rogue exiled by the Jedi Order to meditate on the Force in enforced solitude. On her arrival, however, she encountered other Human exiles. Linguistic evidence suggested that elements of the planet's Human population had been largely isolated from the wider Galaxy since the days of the Paecian Empire or earlier, while later Dathomiri tradition claimed that the inhabitants Allya found had been exiled for producing illegal battle droids; what was not clear from available evidence was whether the earlier settlers had arrived in a single group long before Allya's time, or if in fact Dathomir had been used more continuously as a penal colony over the millennia. However, it was known that a few Human shamans already inhabited Dathomir by the fortieth century before the Galactic Civil War, some of which boarded a Tho Yor ship in 36,453 BBY and joined the founders of the Je'daii Order.Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi What was clear was that by the time of Allya's arrival, the Human population had become prey for the dominant sentients at the apex of Dathomir's native food-chain: the rancors. But when Allya assumed leadership of the population, events were set in motion that would lead to the development of a unique Human culture on Dathomir, founded on the enslavement of the male population to female warriors, the transformation of the rancors from predators to allies, and the authorship of the Book of Law. Native accounts sometimes attributed the shaping of Dathomiri society entirely to Allya, presenting her as a lone woman among a rabble of helpless men, mere snacks for herds of hungry rancors until they became her willing slaves. These traditions insinuated that Allya reduced the population to willing subjugation in a single lifetime, with the few who did not follow her becoming food for the rancors; among her followers, favored slaves were offered the chance to become mates, in the knowledge that if they fathered sons, they would be fed to the rancors. The boys were raised by other slaves to become slaves themselves, whereas the daughters of Allya were raised by her and trained to become one with the Force. This account claimed that Dathomiri society was forged in a single generation, and traced the ancestry of every Human on the planet to a single mother and her daughters, the eldest of whom was said to have been just sixteen local years old (about twenty standard years) when her Jedi mother died. But while this version was largely accepted as accurate by the New Republic, it was likely to be a fabricated urban legend. The linguistic influence of Paecian in the Dathomiri language showed that the Human population had been established for rather more than two millennia when Allya arrived, indicating the existence of a viable breeding population; and even under the New Republic, the Singing Mountain Clan remembered others who had not been "daughters of Allya", and who had gradually faded as distinct groups over subsequent generations. Nevertheless, it was likely that the key event in the forging of Dathomiri society was Allya's discovery that she could tame the rancors using the Force, with the resulting symbiosis between female rider and mount dictating subsequent social patterns. The attribution of the Book of Law to Allya was probably also correct: a codification of the moral and ethical laws that she wished for her daughters to follow, written down shortly before her death. The final entry of the Book of Law was the same as Allya's alleged last words to her daughters: "Never concede to evil". One other factor in Dathomir's past of relevance, but seemed to have been forgotten to future generations, was the existence of an academy on the planet in the final years of the Galactic War, shortly before 500 BBY. This was one of the more prestigious training establishments of the Brotherhood of Darkness, but it was not known how long it lasted for, or if it left any permanent legacy on the planet. Recorded history Culture Known Clans *Singing Mountain Clan *Frenzied River Clan *Misty Falls Clan *Red Hills Clan *Dreaming River Clan *Great Canyon Clan *Raining Leaves Clan *Broken Columns Clan *Bright Sun Clan *Red Mud Potters Clan *Blue Coral Divers Clan *Scissorfists Clan *Howling Crag Clan *Nightsisters **Nightbrothers **Spiderclan Appearances Notes and references Category:Force-based organizations Category:Culture of Dathomir Category:Force-sensitive species Category:Human races Category:Dathomiri